Every year, The Consumerist holds an online “tournament” of sorts to determine the worst, most hated companies in America, as voted on by the users, and this year video game publishing giant EA beat out Bank of America, Walmart, PayPal and many others to win the “Worst Company in America” award.
Now, EA may not exactly be winning over the hearts of America’s game-playing public with its apparent insistence on trying to sap every last dime out of its customers, but that EA is considered worse than Bank of America, the company responsible for many families losing their homes, sounds ridiculous. Still, The Consumerist admittedly makes some good points.
“After more than 250,000 votes, Consumerist readers ultimately decided that the type of greed exhibited by EA, which is supposed to be making the world a more fun place, is worse than Bank of America’s avarice, which some would argue is the entire point of operating a bank,” the website said.
“To those who might sneer at something as “non-essential” as a video game company winning the Worst Company In America vote: It’s that exact kind of attitude that allows people to ignore the complaints as companies like EA nickel and dime consumers to death.”
The Consumerist continues: “There have even been numerous accusations that EA and its ilk deliberately hold back game content with the sole intent of charging a fee for it at a later date. It’s one thing to support a game with new content that is worth the price. It’s another to put out an inferior — and occasionally broken — product with the mindset of “ah, we’ll fix it later and make some money for doing so.”
So, how is EA handling winning the “Worst Company in America” award? Quite well, apparently. Here’s what the company had to say in a statement: “We’re sure that bank presidents, oil, tobacco and weapons companies are all relieved they weren’t on the list this year. We’re going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide.”
Do you think that EA deserves to win the “Worst Company in America” award?
Source: The Consumerist
